NYPD Beefs Up Mosque security for Ramadan
The NYPD Tuesday announced heightened security for the city’s mosques during the upcoming Islamic holy observance of Ramadan. Local precincts will dispatch more officers on foot patrol and in squad cars to patrol the areas surrounding the mosques during the month-long religious observance that begins on Monday. “Collaboration with the public is a vital ingredient […]
Oil, Islam, and Women (Salon.com)
Don’t blame Islam for the plight of women in the Middle East. Blame oil. That’s the message from UCLA political science professor Michael Ross, in “Oil, Islam, and Women,” published in the February 2008 American Political Science Review, and flagged as worth reading by the highly dependable Chris Blattman. Ross’ argument is fascinating. Here’s the […]
MN: Muslim Rep. Ellison Stresses Foreign Outreach
Freshman Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison has become a de facto American emissary, meeting with foreign policy makers both here and abroad to preach peace and democracy. Ellison, a Democrat, had already developed an international reputation when he took his oath of office on the Quran last year. In his first term in office, he’s built […]
Muslim Democrats Make Political Impact
The lilting sound of the Koran, sung in haunting Arabic, rang through the unlikely setting of a basement hotel conference room. A local imam intoned the verses, exhorting the audience of Muslim Democrats to reject Satan and give thanks to Allah. Then a troop of Boy Scouts strode onto stage carrying the American flag and […]
CAIR-CA Hosts Youth Leadership Conference at State Capitol
(SACRAMENTO, CA, 8/25/2008) – The California chapters of the Council on American- Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA) recently held their fourth annual Muslim Youth Leadership Program (MYLP) conference at the state capitol building in Sacramento. The four-day conference featured workshops on community organizing and advocacy, public speaking and media activism. The highlight of the conference was the […]
CAIR-LA: Know Your Rights as a Traveler
As travel season reaches its highpoint, more and more American travelers to international destinations are concerned with acquiring proper vaccinations, obtaining the right visas, and, not surprisingly, the potential for being “harassed” at the airport upon arrival back into the States. Many travelers have recently complained of their encounters with agents or officers as soon […]
CAIR-LA: ‘Towelhead’ Draws Protest
An Islamic civil rights and advocacy group has asked Warner Bros. to change the title of its upcoming film “Towelhead,” saying “the word is commonly used in a derogatory manner against people of the Muslim faith or Arab origin.”The studio said it plans to keep things as it is and stand by the filmmakers, who […]
CAIR-LA: Muslims Troubled by ‘Towelhead’ Title
Muslim leaders are urging movie executives at Warner Bros. to retitle their new movie TOWELHEAD because the word is “offensive and exploitative”.Los Angeles members of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) insist the derogatory term is offensive to American Muslims and Arab-Americans. They go so far as to state the term ‘towelhead’ as “a racial […]
MI: Obama Campaign Taps New Arab Outreach Director
A few weeks after Barack Obama’s first Arab-American outreach person resigned amid controversy over past connections to an imam, the campaign has tapped attorney Rashida Tlaib to be its outreach director in Michigan, where Tlaib just won a state primary, the Forward has learned. Ben LaBolt, an Obama campaign spokesman, confirmed the appointment for a […]
Is Fear of Muslims a Cover for Racism?
It made me think of my own family. Having coined “O’Bama” for the Irish working-class values that Joe Biden brings to the Democratic ticket, MSNBC motormouth Chris Matthews called his family in Pennsylvania — where Scranton-born Biden is known as the state’s “third senator” in some quarters — to ask whether now they’d be voting […]